Tag: sketchbook

Some months ago, following the lead of fellow sketcher Pedro Alves, I applied to be part of German art paper manufacturer Hahnemühle blogger community. I was very happy to receive, a few weeks later, a package filled with free material to test and review. Hahnemühle has become one of my favorite brands in the art supplies department, especially for the high quality of their watercolor sketchbooks, so being a part of their community and being able to tell the world about my experience with their products is a privilege!
So, stay tuned for reviews of all these excellent products, coming soon: the Grey Book, the A5 Watercolor Book and the Cezánne watercolor paper block 36×48, rough surface.

Chamusca lies along the south bank of the Tejo, in the heart of the highly agricultural Ribatejo. The City Hall harnessed this geographical claim as a promotion tool for the tourism in the region. “Chamusca, the Heart of Ribatejo” is the new message that they’re sending out to the rest of the country, basing the campaign on the town’s rich gastronomy, fervent cultural life and strong traditions. The mayor himself is a sketcher, so the City Hall invited the urban sketchers to visit Chamusca and have a go at their sights and colors.

From high up on the hill where the small Nossa Senhora do Pranto chapel sits, the Tejo wetlands and the town sitting on the foothill were ready to be sketched. Seemed like an ordinary wetlands town from there, but what was extraordinary was the very fact that we could gaze at all of it from above. Chamusca sits at the end of the Tejo valley and at the beginning of the wetlands which only stop at the Mar da Palha, and that gives the town an unique vantage point. The climb up wasn’t hard. The Town Hall bus brought us up. Our legs and appetite brought us down. Town Hall had prepared a veritable banquet in a local restaurant. We tasted all the different foods of the region, sided with a fado singer and guitar players.

Well nourished, it was time to spend a semi-lazy sunny afternoon sketching the historical center of Chamusca. The town is peppered with buildings related to agriculture, usually cooperatives and early to mid-20th century state institutes, bound at the time on controlling and taxing both the farming population and the agricultural elites of old.

Besides the great feast and the tour up the hill, another great gift the Town Hall had for us was a set of high quality paper folded sketchbook, all of them locally handmade by artisans Linha28. I got from it the best reaction from my Rembrandt watercolors that I’d seen in a long time! And it gave me a chance to wrap up one sketch meeting in one sketchbook. OCD victory!